The Dark Mage is ultimately a story about survival, healing, hope, chosen family, and love. However, the characters’ journeys include difficult and sometimes intense material.This guide is intended for readers who would prefer more detailed content information before beginning. It contains minor spoilers.The Dark Mage contains themes and scenes involving:• Emotional, verbal, and psychological abuse, including abuse by a parent and partner• Domestic abuse, coercive control, forced/arranged marriage, misogyny, and loss of bodily autonomy• PTSD, trauma recovery, dissociation, panic attacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, and abandonment trauma• Severe depression, including loss of appetite, insomnia, anhedonia, and withdrawal• Grief and bereavement, including on-page deaths of friends and loved ones• Shame, self-loathing, low self-worth, and internalized effects of abuse• Physical assault and injury, including hitting, punching, kicking, hair pulling, dragging, knife injury, bruising, and bleeding• Threats of sexual violence toward the protagonist• Rape/sexual assault of a secondary character with subsequent trauma symptoms, medical care, pregnancy fears, and compassionate administration of emergency contraception• Kidnapping, captivity, drugging, and physical and magical restraint• Torture and branding/burning of captive characters• On-page child abuse and torture, including kidnapping, drugging, restraint, severe beatings, burns, and serious infected wounds• On-page death of children and grief surrounding the deaths of children• On-page fantasy violence, combat, blood, and death, including mass and retaliatory killing by the protagonist and other sympathetic characters• Graphic, violent deaths and accelerated decomposition• On-page injuries, wound care, medical treatment, severe illness, high fever, respiratory distress, and fear that a loved one may die• Vomiting in response to violence, grief, illness, and traumatic events• Menstruation, including bleeding, significant cramping, nausea, and fatigue• Systemic persecution, discrimination, imprisonment, execution, and killing of people with magic and those who shelter them• Supernatural horror, including death magic, ghosts, corpses, reanimated/decaying bodies, body horror, curses, bound spirits, and mass death• Blood magic, including intentional cutting for a magical blood vow• Major relationship deception involving a concealed identity and violent past• Consensual explicit/open-door sexual content, including intercourse and oral sex, with sexual intimacy depicted during trauma recovery• Alcohol use and intoxication• Organized theft, robbery, and espionage• Forced separation from loved onesNo rape or sexual assault occurs between the main romantic couple. Threatened sexual violence against the protagonist does not progress to sexual assault.Please take care of yourself while reading. If any of this content makes The Dark Mage unsuitable for you, you are always welcome to decline or stop reading at any time.
